AGH Outside Asia

Locations where the Vespa mandarinia’s nest and specimens were found.
Click the image to open it in Google maps

The Asian Giant Hornet can be found in most Asian countries from China to Japan, South to Vietnam, and to the West to Nepal, and eastern regions of India.

Since August 2019, it has also been found on the pacific coast of North America close to the border between Canada and USA. In the map above you can find all the locations where individual specimens or nest have been found.

Vespa mandarinia, commonly known as Asian Giant Hornet or Japanese Giant Hornet, is the biggest living hornet on the planet. Its size is quite impressive; the body can reach a length of 50 mm, while the wingspan can be over 8 cm.

This specimen found in Yunnan reaches a huge wingspan of 93.51 mm and the body length (without antennas or legs) is well over 60 mm. This individual was definitely above the average size normally reached by this big hornet.

Here is the poster made by the Washington State Department of Agriculture
after Blaine’s nest was removed

How dangerous is Vespa mandarinia?

From 15 to 26 people die every year in Japan for being stung by Hymenoptera (bees, wasps hornets). In China, the yearly figures are between 30 to 40 people.
When compared with the figures form a European country like Italy (which has free access to good quality healthcare) and you notice that 10 to 20 people die even there with a fraction of the China population and roughly half of Japan population you can say than Vespa mandarinia is not more dangerous then Vespa crabro or Vespa orientalis.

Besides a small part of the population who suffers from specific allergies, it takes an average of 60 stung to kill an adult person in good health. Most people stung by 30 giant hornets survive the painful experience.

Here a short video about this insect

For more information please check this link

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Online Databases

Acta Plantarum – Italian plants database

Araneae – Italian spider and other italian Arachnids database

Atlas Hymenoptera – Hymenoptera world atlas

Bladmineerders – Bladmineerders – Plant Parasites of Europe leafminers, galls and fungi

Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) – cloud-based data storage and analysis platform for DNA sequences

Britsh Bugs – Online identification guide to UK Hemiptera

BugGuide – Guide to identification, images, & information

Cabi ISC – Invasive species compendium

Catalog of Life – complete catalog, update yearly, of all known living species

Diplopoda.de – All the diplododa

DoPI – The Database of Pollinator Interactions

Encylopedia of Life – known information about every life form

Featherbase – Online Database about european feathers

Fishbase – database about all Fishes

Leps – Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa

NCBI – National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information

Planetcatfish – The biggest info collection about Loricaridae

Pollinator Accademy – How to identify the main pollinators

Pyrgus.de – Lepidoptera and their ecology

Spider Silkdome DB – Spider Silkome Database

World Spider Catalog – an online database that grants access to scientific literature and taxonomy on more then 48.000 spider species

Do you know other online databases about living species?
Please let me know

If liked this article you might want to check what else I published
to help me maintain this website and produce better pictures and contents, click here
Should you be interested in a particular topic, please tell me